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Kathleen Mullin Bio:

Kathleen Mullin, M.D., is the Medical Director for Clinical Research at the New England Institute for Clinical Research and the Associate Medical Director at the New England Institute for Neurology and Headache (NEINH). Dr. Mullin is board-certified in neurology and headache medicine and after graduating from Tufts University and New York University School of Medicine, she completed her residency training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Headache Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center.

Prior to joining NEINH, Dr. Mullin was the Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Montefiore. She was also Director of Clinical Trials, overseeing a busy clinical trials program. She has been a principle and a sub-investigator on numerous studies, with her work being published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national meetings.

Newer migraine medications are designed to address a different arm of the pain source than traditional triptan therapy, an approach not usable by patients with vascular issues.

Dr. Mullin explains

How this medication works by blocking CRPG receptors and why that makes a difference

What exactly defines a medication as being effective and how Nurtec™ fits the definition, and

How to let your doctor know about these newer medications.

Kathleen Mullin, MD, is the Medical Director of the New England Institute for Clinical Research (NEICR) in Stamford and specializes in headache medicine. A neurologist by training, she continued working in headache medicine after a fellowship following medical school and has never looked back. She is a clinician who also helps companies run migraine medication trails on her patient population and has found a very effective new medication that’s now FDA approved: Nurtec™.

She explains how this works differently than the common triptan line of medicines, which work to decrease inflammation through vascular shrinking. However, any patient with a vascular condition of any sort is not able to take these medicines.

She explains how the migraine medication Nurtec™ binds with CGRP receptors; GCRP is a neuropeptide that we all have in our bodies. Migraine sufferers have an increased amount of them and blocking their ability to bind blocks their ability to cause pain.

Therefore, medications that work this way are called CGRP antagonists. She discusses the success patients have had with this who haven’t found relief with any other medication

She adds that headaches are wildly underdiagnosed and urges listeners to seek out medical help if they suffer from headaches. She says that if you ever had a headache that made you feel you had to cancel something, you probably had a migraine—so go to the doctor, she advises.